Summer of Discontent
by sbrianson
Summary: Sirius Black learns the hard way that in the Black house, Mother always knows best. When the proverbial mess hits the fan… Slash.


"Summer of Discontent"

Pairing: Sirius Black / Remus Lupin

Rating: "R" – for language and slash content

DISCLAIMER: This story is fictional – that's F-I-C-T-I-O-N. It never happened, and is not real. It is the product of my own imagination. It contains descriptions of male slash (that's male/male homosexual relations). If you do not like this type of content, or if you find homosexuality or its practice offensive, please click the "Back" button or close your Internet browser NOW, and do not read any further. All characters and copyrights are owned by J.K Rowling and Warner Brothers™ (AOL Time Warner), but this story is owned by me and is all my own work.

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DEDICATIONS:

One. To my darling Mother Dearest, who inspired this fic, and who in no way resembles Mrs Black at all (!) … Of course, that's only because she's the feminisation of Vernon Dursley…

Two. To my Beta, Siobhán Rose, who put my kittens in her hat and pulled out rabbits instead, without whom this fic would certainly have stayed just an idea in the middle of a Physiology lecture. Thank you.

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It had been a very long summer holiday so far. Sixteen-year-old Remus Lupin had only been apart from his new boyfriend for four and a half weeks and already he was having withdrawal symptoms that even chocolate did not ease. And for the studious teenager, that was no easy feat. 'Why did Hogwarts have to have summer holidays?', he thought glumly, and settled down with his new textbooks for the forthcoming school year. He didn't want to go downstairs to the company of his parents feeling like he did right now – yesterday his mother had noticed the love-sick werewolf's mood and started asking awkward questions, apparently deciding that he was pining over a new girlfriend. Albeit she was not far off the mark, but did she have to know _every _single aspect of his life? He loved his mother dearly, but God! She could be so damn overprotective sometimes. And he certainly wasn't ready to tell her about his private life, or, more appropriately, that he was going out with another _boy_!

And so he stayed in his room, idly flicking through his new schoolbooks (having already finished all of his homework), hoping for some sort of distraction to take his mind off not being back with his friends, and his lover. And no sooner than he had picked up his copy of "_The History of Dwarfkind: A Detailed Study of Dwarves, Their Culture and Their Past _" than said distraction arrived sharply, in the form of a large eagle owl, which could only have been sent by one person. Grinning broadly, Remus ran to the window and nearly tore the bird's leg off retrieving the note tied to it. Heart leaping, he unrolled the scrap of parchment and began to read:

" _Hey, gorgeous!_

_Free house today – My favourite cousin has had the mordacity to date a muggle-born, so Mother Dearest has decided that it is HER BUSINESS and must sort out this dreadful threat to the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black's family tree. Dad is out arse-licking the Ministry as per fucking usual (and of course that wretched house-elf will be needed to carry the gold, ahem, _generosity _from the Black Family), and Regulus is out tormenting muggles with his mates._

_I shall be waiting at the fireplace between the hours of twelve and four, with a large bar of Honeydukes chocolate – it'll be the only thing that you'll need to unwrap…_

_Love,_

_Dog on Heat x x x _"

Remus jumped with excitement. What was the time? He looked at the clock on his bedroom wall – it read five minutes past eleven. "Damn!" he swore, as he began to pace around his bedroom, gazing longingly towards his fireplace. He had always had his own fireplace in his bedroom, as it helped to keep him warm during the time around his transformations. But when he became a Prefect his parents, wanting to give him a present (he already had an owl for keeping in touch with home from school, and he hated playing quidditch so a broom was no good) had arranged for his fire to be connected up to the Floo Network, so he could chat and visit his friends.

'Why did time have to pass so _slowly_', he thought, frustrated. He tried reading his new History of Magic textbook, but could barely concentrate on the Dwarf Uprising of 1362 as all of his unconscious (and most of his other) thoughts were on a certain shaggy haired, puppy eyed hunk of loveliness that he called his boyfriend, Sirius. So he resumed pacing the floor and cursing the concept of the passage of time because it was _far_ too laid back and slow for his liking, thank you very much.

Half past eleven…

Quarter to twelve…

Ten to…

Five to…

And as soon as Remus heard the old grandfather clock in the living room announce Noon, a handful of Floo powder was thrown into the fire, and "Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place" was screamed so loudly and quickly that Remus's mother called up to him to ask if he was okay. Dismissing this as a stubbed toe to his mother, Remus practically ran into the fireplace.

"Well, hello there, Mr Moony. In a bit of a hurry somewhere, are we?" said Sirius, playfully. He was curled up in front of the hearthstone in his living room. And he hadn't lied in his letter. The chocolate bar he had promised was indeed the only thing that Remus needed to unwrap, although it was some time before he got around to that little task…

"You know, I rather enjoyed that, Pads," sighed Remus, contentedly munching on the last of his chocolate.

"S'okay," his boyfriend replied. The couple, now… decent again, were sprawled out on the dragon hide settee across the room, held in each other's arms as they watched the flames dance soothingly in the fireplace across from them.

"What with all the secrecy and all, we've never really got to spend any quality time with each other, have we?"

"What!" sputtered Sirius, "you mean that what we just did wasn't _quality_ enough for your liking? I seemed to get the idea that you had a different impression not two hours ago!"

"Well, I'm not saying that what we just did wasn't _quality_, Padders," Remus despaired at the raven-haired Adonis sometimes. He really did. "Because it was. Very much so, in fact. It's just that back at school all our _alone time_ gets spent, well, _you know_."

"What was that last bit, Moony?"

"What d'you mean?"

"About how we spend our '_alone time_'?"

"We just, well, _you know_."

"Well no, I don't. Why don't you enlighten me?" Sirius found out that his partner had a surprisingly good aim when it came to throwing settee cushions.

"I'm being sirius, Serious! I mean – ah, uh, serious! Serious, Sirius! Stop laughing at me!"

"Sorry?" Sirius offered. The look on Remus's face told him that that was _certainly_ not good enough. "Sorry, love" he tried, sincerely that time.

"Hmph! Bitch!"

"You love it, really!"

"And so what if I do?"

"Anyway, you were saying…?"

"Oh yeah. Well, we never get to spend time just… being with each other."

"No we don't. But I think that's something we shall have to rectify, isn't it."

Sirius glanced at the mantle clock across from them. It was reaching three o'clock.

"No offence, love, but you'd better think about leaving soon. It's just that Mother might be back before too long."

"Yeah," the fair-topped boy agreed. "I'll be expected down for tea soon, anyway. I've already missed lunch. Mum and Dad'll be worried."

"See you soon?" said Sirius, as the two heaved themselves off the sofa to cross the room to the fireplace.

"Hope so," Remus replied, before leaning in for one more stolen kiss before his departure. And their mouths closed round each other, tongues exchanging a delicate waltz, a dance during which it is all too easy for two hormonal teenagers to become more than a little carried away…

The two boys had become so involved with each other that neither heard the front door swing open and shut, as Sirius's mother began shouting to her eldest son.

"I just don't believe that bloody cousin of yours," called Mrs Black from the hallway. "Bringing shame on the Name of Black! Of course, you'd know a little about that, wouldn't you, Sirius, but still… Associating herself with one of… _them_!" And at that, Mrs Black crossed the threshold into the living room, and gave a shriek of fury at the sight that greeted her. Sirius looked up in horror, as his mother caught the lovers in full embrace, standing between them and the only means of escape – the fireplace.

Pandemonium broke loose all around them. Sirius leapt up and, grabbing hold of the startled werewolf, shoved his lover almost into the fire. Throwing an expensively ornate bowl of Floo powder at the flames, where it smashed, Sirius cried out Remus's address, petrified of what his mother would do to his boyfriend, never mind him.

"Get the fuck out of here! Please, before –" But he never finished his sentence, as a rather fetching statuette of Salazar Slytherin struck the mantle, barely an inch away from his head. "Mother, I can explain…" Sirius began. As the flames in the fireplace turned green and the terrified boy made his escape, the last thing that Remus heard was Mrs Black's livid, screeching voice screaming

"Bad enough your cousin with that filthy mudblood of hers, but _you_, my own _son_, with that half-blood bastard! A man! A _queer_!"…

It was two hours later when a dishevelled, bleeding Sirius came to be sat on the edge of Remus's bed. Remus was gently dabbing a five inch long gash on his boyfriend's forearm with a cloth soaked in warm water and antiseptic lotion, trying to avoid looking at him. He thought fleetingly about the situation and suppressed a small giggle – usually this would be what Sirius did for _him_ every month, after each transformation. But no matter how funny he thought the rôle-reversal was, the circumstances behind Sirius's injuries were definitely no laughing matter.

"Oh, Merlin, this is entirely my fault!" he sobbed, guiltily.

"No, Remus," the dark-haired boy tried to soothe. "It's not your fault at all. If I hadn't have been so bloody stupid…"

"But if I hadn't have been there in the first place –"

"But you wouldn't have been if I hadn't asked you to be," said Sirius firmly.

"S'pose so…"

"And anyway, if it's _anyone's _fault, then it's Mother's."

"Oh, Merlin, Sirius! What did she do to you to leave you in this state?"

"Oh, the usual. Shouted a lot, kicked me around the room, fired some of the family heirlooms at me, a curse here, and a curse there, curses flying everywhere… Pity I'm not allowed to use my wand outside school…" Sirius trailed off, voice full of regret about the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery.

"Curses?"

"Oh, yeah. I mean, what's a family row without an Unforgivable or two?"

"U-u-unforgivables?" Remus shrieked, voice dripping with panic and guilt "Sh-she used one of the _Unforgivables_ on you!"

"No, Reem, _two_. You see, she tried to make me say that I wasn't gay and that I…" Sirius paused, and turned bright red. "And that I… didn't love you. But she couldn't. Good old _Imperius_, but I can fight that one off now. When that failed, she tried her favourite 'Plan B' – plain, simple and old-fashioned pain therapy. Ah, _Cruciatus_ can come in _so_ handy in the case of disobedient children, can't it? I think she wanted to use a third, but Regulus came home. A Black though she may be, but I don't think Mother could think of a good enough excuse to save face if he came in and found his brother's bloody, beaten body crumpled up next to the fireplace…"

"The – the unforgivables…"

"Don't worry, love, I'm used to it by now."

"But Siri–"

"No, _really. I'm used to it_," his lover interrupted. "This is the last straw, though. I've had enough, and I'm _never_ going back. I'll never give that unholy, cretinous, cruel, bigoted bitch the chance to do it ever again!"

There was a stunned silence on Remus's part. He couldn't think of the words, because there _were_ no words to describe what Remus felt in his heart for the miserable fate of his lover. And so with tears trickling down his face he bent over and placed his lips against Sirius's own, planting the softest of kisses on his beloved 's lips, tears mingling with the salty moisture beginning to collect on Sirius's own cheeks. Looking deeply into Sirius's eyes, he hoped with all his heart that his love for the steely-eyed boy would somehow ease Sirius's pain.

And Sirius's mouth curled up into the slightest, briefest of grins, as he knew that it had all been worth it. It would be worth twenty times what his mother had done to him and _more_, because this time he had Remus to help him see it through. He was free, and he had Remus, and they could be together at last. 'And that,' he thought, smiling, 'that at least was worth ten, no – ten _thousand_ Cruciatus curses.'


End file.
